Mattei Plan: €160 million for Mozambique

Francesco Lollobrigiba: ‘We don’t just want to understand how the mechanisms of self-sufficiency and food sovereignty are created, but to understand how food and agricultural production can create wealth, penetrate other markets with the Geographical Indications system’, which in Italy are worth 20 billion and employ 250,000 people

Quick Take — Agriculture in Italy and Africa: we need clarity and transparency

let’s talk about Coltivaritalia – €1 billion for Italian agriculture – and the Mattei Plan, €5.5 billion, Italian money, mentioned in several articles where Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, talks about Mercosur : we agree with him on the safeguard clauses and the reciprocity of the rules, but we need, in the above-mentioned cases (Coltivaritalia and Mattei Plan), clarity and transparency on how our money will be spent, in Italy and in Africa.

JBS, the Brazilian meat giant to benefit from the treaty between Europe and Mercosur

Great attention should be paid to safeguard clauses and reciprocity agreements, but the EU-Mercosur agreement should not be erected as a totem against which to hurl one’s frustration at problems in the sector that actually have an entirely different origin: first and foremost, the low profitability of the land trades compared to the rest of the economy

Quick Take — Donald Trump’s trade wars put agriculture in crisis: the example of Michigan cherries

In 2024, the US exported nearly $506 million in fresh cherries worldwide, up 10% in value and 3% in volume from the previous year

In the first half of this year, US fresh fruit exports fell 17% in volume and 15% in value.

This was due to:

  • bad weather: the USDA predicts 41% for cherry crop loss in Michigan)
  • iCE interventions and visa delays there is a shortage of farm labour
  • trump’s trade wars. US shipments to China never fully recovered after Trump’s trade war in 2018. Sales to Canada fell 18% in volume in the first six months.

Source : Reuters

Quick Take — Americans ate 1 billion fewer meals in restaurants between January and March than in the comparable quarter a year ago

McDonald’s CEO, Chris Kempczinski, said that while the burger chain’s sales returned to growth last quarter, visits from low-income customers in particular fell by double digits between April and June as their real incomes dropped…

..While overall food inflation has slowed, the cost of eating out is outpacing that of cooking at home, with the consumer price index for food at home up 2.4 per cent and food away from home up 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to June. The US Department of Agriculture predicts that the cost of eating out will continue to rise faster than meals at home. Last year, consumers spent $1.1 trillion on food at home and $1.5 trillion on food away from home, including taxes and tips…

About McDonald’s read also here.